Social Impacts of Spirulina
Today, 12.9% of the world’s population is malnourished. The majority of those who face this issue resides in the world’s underdeveloped nations. There is also a sizeable food insecure population in wealthy nations. Of those who are affected by this, children suffer the most. 45% of global juvenile deaths are attributed to malnourishment.
As many as 50 million Americans are food insecure. This figure represents one in six Americans. The numbers only continue to rise. Currently, 12.2% of family households belong to this group. Alarmingly, 20.6% of American households with children are food insecure. The startling fact is that developed nations are becoming increasingly food insecure. If the first world cannot feed itself how can they tend to the ever hungrier developing world?
Many organizations believe donations are the answer. Though, charity is not a sustainable method of support. Others believe giving people a sustainable source of food and work is the answer.
Farming has long been touted as being the answer to world hunger. One issue with this solution is desert expansion due to climate change, thus we lack farmable land. With many solutions being exhausted, now, on the forefront of agricultural technology, is micro-crops and micro-farming. One major product that can be derived from this is spirulina.
Spirulina is one of Earth’s most nutrient dense food sources. Every aspect of spirulina, from where it can be grown, its ability to give employment, its ecological requirements, to its nutrition, make this micro-crop the answer to global hunger.
Spirulina is grown in plastic channels or artificial ponds. Both of which thrive in arid desert climates due to direct sunlight. With Earth’s expanding deserts and loss of agrarian land, a crop that thrives in this environment must be exploited.
The most food insecure population is in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 25% of people are starving. If spirulina farms were introduced, the impossible to tend land in and around the region would become of use. A single food source is not enough to sustain a population, but if this source is farmable, it creates employment and a source of income. Spirulina will not only directly feed people, but it will give them income to escape food insecurity.
Spirulina grown in channels or tanks can yield six grams per square meter per day or two kilograms per year. Each square meter can cure the symptoms of malnutrition in twenty children, or twenty nursing women, or twenty pregnant women. Children fed two grams of spirulina daily for six to eight weeks completely mitigated the effects of malnutrition. Introducing spirulina would commence the eradication of non-communicable diseases, low birth weight, and childhood mortality.
Introducing farming to underdeveloped regions could be seen as a difficult endeavor due to lack of resources. Fortunately, spirulina requires minimal resources for successful cultivation. In order to produce one kilogram of protein derived from spirulina, one need only have 2100 liters of water and 0.6 square meters of land. As stated before, the formally unusable land is more than suitable for raising these micro-crops. Additionally, 100% clean water is not needed for production, therefore areas with limited water supply can recycle water in a symbiotic process that is self-sustaining.
The blunt truth is the issues we face today regarding malnutrition will only get worse with time unless action is taken soon. By 2050 the world population will be 9.7 billion. Resources are already exhausting in 2018, which begs the question, how will we feed a fast-growing population with less than what we have now? In addition to diminishing resources, climate change is causing the world to go through a phenomenon called desertification. Currently, 41% of the world is classified as drylands. Two billion people live in drylands, and 90% are impoverished. Overpopulation is forcing people into these hostile climates. Fortunately, there is a solution to be found in spirulina. Spirulina can be grown in inhospitable lands, it is easy to cultivate, and it is highly nutritious. The answers to world hunger are not to be found in expensive and complicated futuristic technologies or vast amounts of money. With spirulina, much of the world could be well fed for years to come while facing the inevitable quandaries of overpopulation and climate change.
-Nathan Jacques Saldinger